My name is Thacher Shields. I’m a Digital Product Designer in North Carolina. As a developer turned UXer, I operate at the intersection of technology and design, leaning on technical knowledge to craft intuitive, effective, and delightful user experiences.

 

Simplify, then add lightness

- Colin Chapman, Lotus Cars

 

Education

Master of Science - Information Technology

UNC Charlotte | Human-Computer Interaction Concentration

 

Graduate Certificate - Human-Computer Interaction

UNC Charlotte

 

Bachelor of Arts - Computer Science

UNC Charlotte | Human-Computer Interaction Concentration | Psychology Minor

 

Experience

Lead Product Designer

Wells Fargo | 2024 - Present

  • Leading design initiative to migrate 30-year-old auto loan underwriting platform to modern React web application
  • Supporting three Agile Scrum teams as sole digital product design resource for multi-million dollar line of business
  • Maintaining Material UI-based design system in Figma for consistency in design across the Consumer Lending line of business
  • Organized design collaboration group with designers from across the LoB to share design resources, critique work, and foster mentorship for junior designers

 

Senior UX Designer

Ally | 2022 - 2024

  • Built click-through UX prototypes in Sketch and Figma
  • Worked with key stakeholders to design intuitive and delightful web applications to support lending products for B2B and B2B2C customers
  • Maintained legacy design systems in Figma to support accessibility audit initiatives
  • Created empathetic CX journey maps and personas in inVision
  • Presented design decisions to senior leadership teams
  • Lead and mentored junior designers to foster internal talent growth and cross-functional team excellence
  • Implemented WCAG 2.2 AA compliant visual designs

 

Developer

TIAA | 2019 - 2022

  • Worked on Agile Scrum team to develop web applications in Node.js environment using Angular 7
  • Built REST services using Spring Boot
  • Developed internal tool to automate PDF generation testing process, increasing testing throughput by over 400%
  • Supported UX team by facilitating qualitative research sessions with customers and building click-through prototypes in Axure RP 8

 

Product Designer

ApSeed Early Childhood Education | 2017 - 2019

  • Designed and delivered new early childhood learning tablet device
  • Worked with offshore manufacturer to reduce costs by over 30%
  • Built custom device image for ease-of-use and security
  • Conducted user research studies to discover pain points
  • Worked with third-party app developers to serve best-in-class learning apps with device
  • Presented to benefactors on behalf of organization

 

Skills

  • UX Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Design Systems
  • Design Thinking
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • Accessibility
  • User Research
  • Market Research
  • Technical Writing
  • Data Visualization
  • Team Leadership
  • Agile
  • Presentation

Tools

  • Figma
  • Sketch
  • inVision
  • Axure
  • Whimsical
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Premiere Pro

Technologies

  • React
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • Java
  • SQL